Play and Learning in the Early Years

With play a central part of new early years initiatives in all parts of the UK, this book will be essential reading for all early years students and practitioners.

Providing high quality play experiences is an essential part of good early years education, but this can pose a challenge for practitioners who face pressure from a more didactic primary curriculum, and from parents worried that their children will fail to acquire essential skills and knowledge.

By helping the reader to develop their understanding of the complex relationships between play and learning, this book examines current theoretical perspectives on play, alongside examples of recent and innovative play research from a range of disciplinary and methodological perspectives. With contributions from leading play scholars, it brings together theory, research, policy and practice in relation to play and learning in early years settings. The emphasis is on the relationship between play and learning, and play and pedagogy, and the need to understand these dimensions more substantially in order to teach with confidence.

Included are chapters on:

- the influence of play on thinking, problem-solving and creativity

- cooperative play and learning

- play, risk and outdoor learning

- learning to play in cultural context

There are chapter objectives, reflective points, reflective tasks and suggestions for further reading throughout, to facilitate critical thinking and encourage independent study. Suitable for early years practitioners, early childhood students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and all those who work with and care for young children, this is an exciting and thought-provoking book.

Get Play and Learning in the Early Years by at the best price and quality guaranteed only at Werezi Africa's largest book ecommerce store. The book was published by Sage Publications Ltd and it has pages.